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Saturday, April 01, 2017

Focusing on Principles Of Peace This Easter

Easter is around the corner and as we anticipate this long weekend which starts with Good Friday, lets take a moment to remember His primary purpose on the earth and follow his direction to find peace. I'm sure you will all agree with me that the world really needs peace with so much of hatred and terror around. As the Holy Week starts on Palm Sunday, April 9th and culminates on Easter Morning, April 16th, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is inviting the world to find the inner peace that comes from the life and teachings of the Savior Jesus Christ through its “Prince of Peace” initiative. Each day of Holy Week the focus will be turned to a Christlike attribute or principle that brings peace. The three purposes of the Prince of Peace initiative are to invite all to come unto Christ, learn principles of peace from the Prince of Peace (Isaiah 9:6) and share ways to find peace through the Savior.

This theme can help us each implement eight core principles of peace into our lives which are Faith, God's Word, Compassion, Gratitude, Prayer, Forgiveness, Repentance and Hope.

A few of these principles which I have firm belief in and practice on a day to day basis are hope, faith and prayer, all thanks to my mom. A lot of people are surprised to know that I'm deeply religious even though I don't come across as the religious sort. I have always seen my mother as an optimistic person who has a lot of faith and regularly prays. In my younger years, prayer was something I did on religious occasions or when I was asked to, but as I got older, I developed faith and it helped me to get through difficulties of life by being positive and having faith in god. Having faith is a wonderful thing as it makes you a stronger person and gives you the courage to face obstacles and problems that come your way. Faith is also closely connected as people that have faith, have hope and people that have hope, have faith. Faith is deep-rooted in the expectation of good things to come. It goes beyond hope. While hope lives in the mind, faith is steeped in the heart and the spirit. I have always seen my mother as an incredibly optimistic person who always hopes for the best and often, things actually materialize to happen that way. This is something which has inspired me a lot and sculpted my attitude towards life. Prayer is something I been doing as a child, but the over the last few years, I have truly understood how powerful it is. There have been many instances in my life where my prayers have been answered which further instilled my faith in god. I am also a firm believer of the law of attraction so I feel that when you have faith and hope, you are already planting a seed of a wish and when you pray, you are attracting your wish towards you and god and the universe start working their magic to make your dream come true. As I have experienced the power of hope, faith and prayer, these principles have brought me closer to god and helped me with a great deal of inner peace. Now, as the holy week approaches, I encourage you to focus on these Principles of Peace and incorporate them into your life to be a better person and find your peace.

For each day of the Holy week, there is a principle and three suggested activities to live those principles in your every day life -

Watch this wonderful video below for more about the #PrinceOfPeace campaign -

For more information, visit mormon.org to learn about the principles of peace and how they can help bring you closer to the Savior. The Easter website and Church social media sites will feature one principle each day of Holy Week with a video about an individual’s experience finding peace by living that principle.